Friday, February 19, 2021

The Colonisation of the Aegean Islands and the Global Origins of Seafaring

The Institute will host its first event of the year on Wednesday February 24. Due to restrictions on in-person gatherings, this will take the form of a webinar to be held via Zoom. Dr Tristan Carter (Professor, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University) will give a lecture entitled, “The Colonisation of the Aegean Islands and the Global Origins of Seafaring: New Data from Naxos and Crete”.

“Today the only human inhabitants of the earth are us Homo sapiens, yet not so long ago we lived alongside other members of our species, such as the Neanderthals and Denisovans. What makes us special? Why did we survive and the others die out? In this talk we discuss some of the claimed evolutionary ‘winning strategies’ associated with Homo sapiens, focusing on seafaring and the colonisation of islands, and the recent challenges to the theory from work on Crete and Flores that only modern humans were capable of boat building and maritime exploration. The talk ultimately focuses on work being conducted at Stelida on Naxos by the Canadian Institute in Greece, and how the discoveries at Stelida are contributing to this debate of global significance.”

You are all most welcome to join us for this the talk, which will begin at 19:00 (Greece) / 12:00 (EST). The link is https://umontreal.zoom.us/j/93257451161?pwd=cDZHVTZKa0d5VnJvMTJVRDh5TlFzdz09

Jonathan Tomlinson
Assistant Director

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